The present invention relates to the field of pneumatic tire air pressure maintenance and more particularly to a system and method for the detection of a pressure drop in a tire. The tire may be a pneumatic tire belonging to a vehicle, such as a truck, automobile, motorcycle, aircraft and the like.
A current system for detecting pressure drops is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,846. Herein, a system is set out in which air pressure and temperature inside the tire are periodically measured. The measured air pressure is corrected according to the measured temperature and an alarm is generated if the temperature corrected air pressure changes by a particular degree over a particular period of time.
Temperature within a tire is influenced by many factors, including: velocity of the vehicle; direction of the vehicle—curved, straight, etc.; temperature of the street surface; solar radiation; and so forth. As such, a rather high uncertainty exists regarding the homogeneity of the temperature inside the tire, and therefore, the actual temperature within the tire as indicated by an internal temperature sensor. As such, a temperature compensation of measured internal air pressure is likewise effected by the uncertainty. Accordingly, a need exists for more effective temperature based tire air pressure compensation.